A few months ago I was DJing metal and noise at what was more of a sweaty dance party than a space for metal and noise, but somehow Pyramids “Hellmonk” got people especially psyched: Arms in the air, eyes closed, tongues out, etc. Telling. The last time I mentioned the Denton post-metallers around here, it was in reference to their collaboration with Nadja that birthed four extended bits of spacious, darkly illuminated naturalist drone. Pyramids frontman R. Loren gets a tad poppier under his new Stephen Crane-inspired Sailors With Wax Wings. As Loren puts it: “…the texts herein are born of [an] encounter, in which [Stephen] Crane himself ran fluid in my walls chanting verses from The Black Riders and War Is Kind.” (Weirdly, I randomly re-read The Red Badge Of Courage last month. In the air?) It’s his project, but it’s also deeply collaborative: On the self-titled debut, Loren’s joined by a massive cast that includes Dominick Fernow (Prurient, Cold Cave, Ash Pool), James Blackshaw, David Tibet, Colin Marston (Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Gorguts, etc.), Aidan Baker (of the aforementioned Nadja), Ted Parsons (Swans, Jesu, Godflesh), Simon Scott (of black metal favorites Slowdive), Hildur Gudnadottir, and fucking Vern Rumsey of Unwound, among others. All of those people contributed to “If I Should Cast Off This Tattered Coat,” but it remains airy and upswinging even with all the weight of so many extra hands. To narrow some things down, the leads vocals are by Loren with guest voice via Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse (!).

People who appear on the album, but not this particular track are recent Xasthur cohort Marissa Nadler and, but of course, My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe.

Sailors With Wax Wings is out this fall via Angel Oven. The design/layout/painting/collage was put together by one-time outsider Faith Coloccia, aka Mamiffer. David Tibet did the cover art. Keep up to date here.